Over different periods of time and different civilizations common themes have emerged throughout the area of entertainment, especially entertainment with violent undertones. The Roman Colosseum and the Mayan Ball Court in Copán are two prominent examples of this. The Roman Colosseum was a popular place of entertainment for the Romans, as was the Ball Court for the Mayans. However, there is a large difference between the activities of the two forms of entertainment. The Colosseum, first of all, was a large amphitheater designed for gladiatorial contests and combats between men and animals, or even between animals alone. (Adams 214) Gladiatorial contests were a major part of the Roman’s lives as they were a free form of entertainment that the
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Unlike the Romans who used the Colosseum to kill for fun or to execute criminals and war captives, the Ball Game’s underlying purpose was to supply candidates for human sacrifice, making it a literal game of life and death. The game was played by professionals or amateurs and captives of war were usually forced to play the game as well. The winners of the game would usually receive a trophy of some sort while the captain of the losing team, or sometimes the whole team, would be sacrificed to the …show more content…
By forcing the prisoners to play the game/fight in the arena, the war captives were basically being executed in a way of a game. The gladiators who fought in the Colosseum were trained to fight. Any prisoner forced to fight, most likely, wouldn’t stand a chance against a gladiator who had been trained under certain circumstances and with certain weaponry. Another similarity between the two is that the prisoners of war were forced to participate in the activities. The same goes with captives forced to play the Ball Game. The Ball Game was a very difficult game to begin with and it would be made a lot harder if a prisoner had to play as against a professional player. It would be almost certain that the prisoner, who had never played the game before, would lose. In both cases, the odds are highly stacked against the prisoners of war who were forced to participate in these activities, showing that they were mostly forced to participate in order to make a show out of their
Unlike the Romans who used the Colosseum to kill for fun or to execute criminals and war captives, the Ball Game’s underlying purpose was to supply candidates for human sacrifice, making it a literal game of life and death. The game was played by professionals or amateurs and captives of war were usually forced to play the game as well. The winners of the game would usually receive a trophy of some sort while the captain of the losing team, or sometimes the whole team, would be sacrificed to the …show more content…
By forcing the prisoners to play the game/fight in the arena, the war captives were basically being executed in a way of a game. The gladiators who fought in the Colosseum were trained to fight. Any prisoner forced to fight, most likely, wouldn’t stand a chance against a gladiator who had been trained under certain circumstances and with certain weaponry. Another similarity between the two is that the prisoners of war were forced to participate in the activities. The same goes with captives forced to play the Ball Game. The Ball Game was a very difficult game to begin with and it would be made a lot harder if a prisoner had to play as against a professional player. It would be almost certain that the prisoner, who had never played the game before, would lose. In both cases, the odds are highly stacked against the prisoners of war who were forced to participate in these activities, showing that they were mostly forced to participate in order to make a show out of their